Over 4.1 million items of fresh produce were quality checked by Muddy Boots’ Greenlight Quality Control software during 2017, an increase of 19% on the previous year. The company puts this down to the growing demand from food businesses for quick and easy access to the data that tells them how their products are performing. This data is then being used to make informed business decisions that help reduce waste and cost whilst maintaining the right quality standards for their customers.

Chances are, when you walk into your local supermarket and select your fruit and vegetables, you’re choosing a product that has been rigorously QC checked by Greenlight Quality Control from Muddy Boots Software (www.muddyboots.com).

Greenlight Quality Control (QC) is widely used by around 70% of the UK’s fresh produce supply chain, as well as a growing global customer base, working up and down the supply chain from supplier through to retailer. Added to the increase in checks being performed, the business also saw a 40% growth in users in 2017 as more retailers started to invite their global suppliers into the system in order to ensure quality consistency across every touchpoint of their supply chains.

Greenlight Quality Control works by centralising product specifications online, enabling all users to easily access, update and share this information, which in turn facilitates real-time visibility of the performance of sites, suppliers and products. However, interpreting results from the vast quantity of data generated within the system can be daunting. To help customers further, Muddy Boots has introduced its new analytics tool, ‘Insights’, to make the processing and interpreting of this data even quicker and simpler.

“This new functionality offers huge opportunity for our customers. Retailers and large suppliers, for example, are quickly able to identify areas of risk (such as poor performing suppliers) and make informed decisions on actions for improvement or locating alternative sources a product can come from. This has inevitably had an impact on waste and the opportunity to introduce savings across the supply chain,” comments Mark Powell, Greenlight Quality Control Product Owner at Muddy Boots.

The wide adoption of Greenlight QC comes with significant environmental and ethical benefits too. By connecting your supply chain together in a single online platform, businesses can reduce waste by up to 50%, a topic high on the agenda of most fresh produce businesses for a number of years. Using Greenlight Quality Control and ‘Insights’ together, customers now have the ability to demonstrate improvement.

“Our Greenlight Quality Control software is well recognised in the industry for its ability to significantly cut waste,” continues Mark. “When all members of your supply chain are accessing the same data via Greenlight QC, everyone is clear on the required specification from the get-go. The supplier (and even his suppliers) have confidence that their produce meets the appropriate quality standards set by the customer before it’s shipped, and the retailer has confidence that all produce about to arrive at depot is fit for purpose.

“This early warning system allows suppliers to identify any produce that the retailer will reject before it’s even shipped and helping to mitigate any of the risk or cost associated with an Emergency Product Withdrawal (EPW). The end result is a significant reduction in waste, increase in efficiency, and stronger supply chain relationships,” concludes Mark.

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